Andy Goldsworthy

Andy Goldsworthy grew up in the town of Yorkshire. When he was only a young boy, he

worked as a farm laborer which allowed him to understand and become aware of his
surrounding by seeing how things change as the seasons change like the farm landscape.
Probably the reason Andy grew fond to working outside with nature. In 1974, he studied Art
and Design at Bradford College until gradation in 1975. During his time at Bradford College,
he attended a presentation which was believed to be a turning point for Andy. A presentation
by Richard long on what was known as land art, building using earths natural elements
such as wood, ice, water, and other natural elements. This inspired him to build a natural
sculptural piece. In 1985, he worked on a project titled Touching North which were four
large snow arches, he started to gain fame from that time and on.
His creations are expressed through photography because most of his work are meant
to fly away, melt, or return to nature. He likes working with anything that can come to his
hand such as leaves, thorns and reeds, snow and ice, twigs, and stones. His work consist of
boldly contrasting colors organized in geometric shapes. A lot of books have been written
about Andy, he has gained significant reputation in the past 25 years for his works and his
permanent installments in certain places. He has produced over 70 exhibitions and projects
all over the world including Canadian artic, France, streets of London, Japan, and etc.
Andy Goldsworthy like many others artists names his master piece or artwork. The

title of the artwork is very important because it helps convey the

theme or subject of the piece. The icicle star really fascinated me
due to the creativity and mind used to make such a piece. The icicle
star was combined together using Andys own saliva. He also used
natural resources such as ice, water and sticks to align the pointy
edges to create the icicle star. The icicle is shaped like a star which has numerous sharp
pointy edges coming out, it is in perfect geometric shape. It portrays a forest wintery
environment. Perhaps on photographed on a certain land or a Rocky Mountains. The subject
or theme this artwork shows us how nature can be very beautiful. In this case it shows how
the artist used Ice to create a beautiful sculptor or art. I believe the intentions of this artwork
given the history of Andy Goldsworthy was for appreciation of the different seasons and the
resources it brings, which in this case was winter.
In my opinion, Andy Goldsworthy was one of the best artist presented in class
because what he does is not easy and very unique. I picked him because not everyone can go
out or are willing to spend time in harsh weathers to create a piece that they dont know if it
will become famous. Andy is known to have spent time in adverse weather conditions
because weather is an important aspect in his artwork like for example one of his works
involving ice spiral must be done before sunrise because as the sun rises the ice melts.
Another aspect or idea I like is that most of his work is shown through the use of
photography because ice melts, stones wash away, leaves blow away, and other natural
resource that return to their natural state. He does have some permanent works of nature as
well such as the roof. Overall I found most of his work to be remarkably creative .